Jonah Peretti has spent the last two decades reshaping the way the internet thinks, feels, and spreads ideas. As the co-founder of HuffPost and the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, he helped architect the modern viral ecosystem — where emotion is currency, attention is the medium, and culture moves at the speed of a share.

Born in California and trained at MIT, Peretti’s path into media didn’t begin in a newsroom, but in systems thinking: experiments in how ideas propagate, how networks behave, and how digital culture accelerates when feedback loops are tight enough.

He co-founded HuffPost in the early blog era, then launched BuzzFeed as a kind of laboratory for the social web: quizzes, listicles, memes, and later, serious journalism and video — each format tuned to the logic of platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Under his leadership, BuzzFeed became both a cultural engine and a mirror, reflecting the internet’s appetite for novelty, emotion, and speed.

Outside of media, Peretti is also a nationally ranked masters sprinter, specializing in the 400-meter distance. In this conversation, Howie and Jonah discuss his evolution as a runner and how it serves as both a companion and counterpoint to his digital life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices